


SEIZE the Day!

by SayuriRoseKandoit



Category: Glee
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Epilepsy, Family, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Illnesses
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2011-04-15
Updated: 2011-07-25
Packaged: 2017-10-18 03:06:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/184327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SayuriRoseKandoit/pseuds/SayuriRoseKandoit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kurt thought he had it bad by just being gay. But one day changes his perspective on life completely...</p><p>Rated for dealings with a neurological medical condition that is potentially dangerous and may cause death.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Summary

For some reason, I honestly don’t know why, I have decided to write about my epileptic experiences through the eyes of Kurt Hummel. Why him out of all the characters? Chris Colfer. I should say Chris Colfer’s sister, Hannah.

I read about Hannah Colfer’s story about a month ago and reading about what Chris’ mom does for Hannah really struck a chord with me. For me, my seizures onset when I was 14 years old and just under a week before my 15th birthday, I was diagnosed with Generalized Tonic-Clonic Epilepsy. The neurologists that I have seen for nearly the past 5 years have no idea what the causes of these seizures are and, with the cause remaining unknown, all we can do is treatment by medication.

I write this story in hopes that maybe awareness for Epilepsy is raised. For people like myself and Hannah Colfer, we need all the help that the people are willing to provide. Epilepsy research is underfunded and needs to be brought into a light that will allow researchers to do their jobs.

Here are some facts that may actually surprise you:

 *** Epilepsy affects over 3 million Americans of all ages – more than multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, and Parkinson’s disease combined. Almost 500 new cases of epilepsy are diagnosed every day in the United States. Epilepsy affects 50,000,000 people worldwide.**

 *** The severe epilepsy syndromes of childhood can cause developmental delay and brain damage, leading to a lifetime of dependency and continually accruing costs—both medical and societal.**

 *** It is estimated that up to 50,000 deaths occur annually in the U.S. from status epilepticus (prolonged seizures), Sudden Unexplained Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP), and other seizure-related causes such as drowning and other accidents.**

 *** The mortality rate among people with epilepsy is two to three times higher than the general population and the risk of sudden death is twenty-four times greater.**

 *** Recurring seizures are also a burden for those living with brain tumors and other disorders such as cerebral palsy, mental retardation, autism, Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, multiple sclerosis, tuberous sclerosis, and a variety of genetic syndromes.**

 **  
_* Historically, epilepsy research has been under-funded. Federal dollars spent on research pale in comparison to those spent on other diseases, many of which affect fewer people than epilepsy._   
**

These are the things that most people will not tell you about Epilepsy.

If you wish to be better informed…check out these websites:

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/epilepsy/epilepsy.htm

http://www.epilepsyfoundation.org/about/

http://www.cureepilepsy.org/home.asp

I did a research paper for my English class last semester (Fall 2010) and was astounded by the amount of information that these websites had.

Love,

Jen


	2. The First Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kurt has his first seizure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any events portrayed from this chapter onward are based on my experiences with Epileptic seizures.

Today was definitely not Kurt Hummel’s day. It started off with him waking up with a headache which, as everyone knows, can mean bad things. Now usually Kurt is a morning person, but for some reason he just didn’t want to get up today. After taking a nice, hot shower, eating a hot breakfast (it was February in Ohio, after all), he grudgingly climbed into his Navigator and drove the twenty minute drive to William McKinley High School.

  


Upon his arrival inside the warm school building, he felt his headache worsen (as if it wasn’t already bad enough). He walked towards his locker, ignoring the Neanderthal jocks, and sneaking past the slimy Jacob Ben Israel. Mercedes, as always, was waiting for him at his locker armed with the latest morning gossip. After greeting each other, Kurt set to get his books for his first three classes settled into his bag, completely ignoring what Mercedes was saying, instead of joining in. Obviously, she noticed.

  


“White boy, you feeling okay” she asked.

  


“I’m fine. Woke up this morning with a headache” he replied. “I took two aspirin before I left home. It should go away soon.”

  


“Alright, Kurt, if you’re sure. See you third period” she smiled.

  


They hugged and walked off in opposite directions. Kurt was headed to Algebra 1 and Mercedes to Spanish. Kurt had United States History second period with Tina, Artie and Santana. Then, he and Mercedes shared Gym class third period, right before lunch. Kurt was glad that he had Gym with Mercedes (does he _look_ the type to enjoy Gym?), otherwise he would’ve been stuck trying to talk to Puck, of all people.

  


Kurt wandered around the halls, like he always did and slid into his Algebra class just as the bell was ringing. His teacher, a woman whose name he never bothered to remember, took attendance and announced that there was a test that day. Of course, Kurt forgot to study. Great. She handed out the test and Kurt’s head throbbed in pain even more when he saw that the test was on quadratic equations. He scowled. Of course the test would be on the one thing in Algebra he had the most trouble with, even after all the extra help he received.

  


Kurt managed to finish his test with five minutes left in the period. Hopefully, his grade this time around wasn’t horrible. Since he now had nothing to occupy his brain, he took out his notebook and began to doodle an outfit that he hoped to one day design. Then the bell startled him out of his reverie and he realized that his second favorite class, History, was next. Maybe he would take a nap.

  


The walk from his Algebra class to his History class was not long, just down the hall. He walked in and set up his notebook to take notes. He waited for the next two minutes and the bell rang, signaling the start of second period.

  


The class just finished the Civil War and now well on the way to learning about World War One when Kurt really started feeling drowsy. So, thinking he would take a ten or fifteen minute nap, he cushioned his head in his arms and fell asleep.

  


About five minutes into his little “nap” Kurt began to seize. He fell sideways out of his chair, only to be caught by Santana, who luckily sat behind him. Santana had an idea of what was happening, only having heard of seizures happening to her father’s patients. Tina ran across the classroom from her seat and helped Santana lower Kurt safely to the floor. The teacher stared on, having no idea what to do.

  


“Call the nurse! He may need to go to the hospital!” Santana yelled at the dumbstruck teacher.

  


After getting a hold of the nurse, the entire school was put under a “white alert” (medical lockdown) and an ambulance was on its way.

  


By the time Kurt came to, he was strapped to a stretcher and had at least four blankets on top of him; an IV drip in his right elbow. He had no idea who the Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) lady was, but he knew that (somewhere in his scrambled mind) that she was there to help him. She was saying something to him, but he couldn’t make sense of it. The only thing he could make sense of was:

  


“Hello Kurt, my name is Kate.”

  


Oh, okay, so the EMT was named Kate He thought that’s nice. Kate began to ask him questions.

  


“Do you know who you are?” Kurt nodded, unsure if his voice would work or not.

  


“What’s your birthday?”

  


“May twenty-seventh nineteen ninety three” Kurt croaked, apparently his voice did work.

  


“Who are your parents?”

  


“Burt Hummel and Carole Hudson, my biological mother is dead” he answered, starting to fall asleep.

  


“Okay, thank you Kurt. You can sleep now; we still have a bit of a drive to Lima Memorial.”

  


Kurt nodded and promptly fell asleep.

  


The next time he woke, he was in the outpatient Emergency Room. He could see his dad, Carole and Finn. Burt was practically hovering over Kurt’s bed; he was instantly by his son’s side as soon as Kurt woke.

  


“Gave us quite a scare there, buddy. We were told you passed out in class. Apparently they didn’t tell us that you had a seizure.”

  


Kurt gave a small smile. “Sorry dad.”

  


The doctor, whose name Kurt didn’t know, who spoke to Burt and Carole said that he hoped that it was only one isolated incident but that if it did happen again, Kurt would have to have all kinds of tests done and would probably be diagnosed with something. However, he said that, for now, so long as Kurt was awake, and his blood work looked good, he was free to go home.

  


So, during the hour long drive home, the only thing that was on Kurt’s mind was going to sleep. So, when the Hummel-Hudsons made it home, Kurt immediately went for his bedroom and crashed. He slept for 12 hours that night.


	3. One Month Later...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m sorry that you had to wait so long for this chapter. I will try my best to get the next chapter out without having to wait so long.

For almost two months, things went well for Kurt. He hadn’t had a seizure since early February and it was now early March. So, believing that it was only a one-time thing, Kurt went about his daily life. However, on March twenty-ninth, Kurt had his second unexpected seizure. He had no idea of the events that happened between his blackout and when he re-awoke.

Kurt was on his way to lunch when he suddenly blacked out. Mr. West, one of Algebra 1 teachers, saw Kurt fall to the floor and start seizing, from through the window in his classroom. Mr. Kirby, the Earth Science teacher, who had been doing hall monitor duties, ran to the nurse’s office. Mr. Kirby told the nurse what happened and, in turn, an ambulance was called to take Kurt, yet again to the hospital. The ambulance arrived at McKinley; Kurt was laid on a stretcher and loaded up.

When he re-awoke, he heard a familiar voice. A voice he was hoping to never hear again. It was Kate, the same EMT he had before. Kate noticed that Kurt had awoken and began to tell him what she knew.

“You had another seizure, Kurt,” Kate said to him.

By the look on his face, Kate could tell that he was terrified. Honestly, if Kurt’s heart-rate was any indication, he definitely was terrified. Kate told him that it was two teachers who found him this time and that they were already about half way to Lima Memorial.

“It’s going to be okay, Kurt,” Kate said in a calm voice. “Your parents were contacted and will be meeting us there.”

 Kurt nodded numbly before he drifted off again.  

Coming to, this time in Lima Memorial, Kurt could faintly hear a doctor talking to his dad, but he couldn’t be sure. All Kurt Hummel knew was that the room was spinning a little, his head felt like it was going to split in half, he was attached to an Intravenous drip, and he had oxygen tubes in his nose.

Upon seeing that he had awoken, the doctor (who he would later come to know as Dr. Shang) and his dad walked over to his bed.

“Kurt,” Doctor Shang said, in a very business-like manner. “I talked with your father and he has agreed for you to have an Electroencephalogram (EEG), a Computed Tomography (CT) scan, a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scan and a Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scan conducted. We would also like to do some blood tests. We believe that you may have Epilepsy.”

Kurt nodded, head in an obvious haze, with confusion. He had no idea what those ‘scans’ were. However, Doctor Shang later went on to explain that those so-called scans would help in determining whether or not he had Epilepsy. It was safe to say that Kurt honestly was terrified and had no idea what Epilepsy even was!

Later that day, Kurt was wheeled around the hospital to get his EEG done. They attached the electrodes to his scalp (he bemoaned his hair) and explained that the EEG reads his brainwaves and helps detect abnormalities in his brain’s electrical activity. Afterwards, they decided to keep him overnight for observation and more testing. It was a good thing that he slept through most of the tests, he ended up sleeping for almost a full fourteen hours.

Kurt’s fifteenth birthday came and passed without another seizure. However, he did found out about a month after his birthday that he was diagnosed with Generalized Tonic-Clonic Epilepsy. That was not something he wanted to hear. In his uneducated opinion, it was just another complication in his life to make him utterly miserable. After that diagnosis was made, Kurt was put on anti-epileptic medication to control the seizures. Burt also insisted that Kurt get a medical bracelet, stating that he has Epilepsy.

Kurt thought that being gay was bad enough, but now that he had been back in school for about two months, everyone now knew him as “the Gay Kid who collapsed in the hallway”. The bullies had no idea how much harder school was for him since the seizures took out a lot of his energy and basically left him feeling like a vegetable. The kids in Glee, however, didn’t bully him. They took their sense of caring in a whole new crazy direction. The Glee girls took it upon themselves to baby him all the time. The guys were a bit of a different story. They told him that they would watch his back more cautiously.

“I can’t get a seizure from hitting a locker, guys” Kurt told the boys. “I’ll be fine as long as I take my medications.”

Kurt made sure to reassure the girls as well, especially Quinn and Mercedes, who seemed to have developed a mothering instinct for Kurt. Luckily for Kurt, the rest of Glee laid off after that. Kurt was forever grateful.

With the Glee kids off his back, he was able to study well and pass his freshman year since the two times he went to the hospital, and the consequential 2 days each afterwards, were officially on his record as excused absences.

When summer rolled in, Kurt couldn’t be happier. He was really glad to be out of the suffocating confines of school. Lucky for him, he hadn’t had a seizure since March and it was now June. By that point, he thought that three months without a seizure was a miracle.

As each month passed, Kurt was able to get back into the groove of his everyday life from before the seizures. In fact, it was almost eighteen months before Kurt started worrying about his seizures again. However, on a cold November night, while Kurt lay sound asleep, he had another seizure; Something that would forever shake his world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CT (computed tomography), PET (positron emission tomography), MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) and EEG scans are the most commonly used brain scans to diagnose Epilepsy. For the most part, they are not fun, but they are required. I’m a Health Sciences major in University, so I guess you could say that it’s a good thing I understand medical terminology.   
> And yes, typically after a seizure, there is very little energy left in the body. Think of going twenty-four hours or longer without any sleep. Take that and multiply it by a factor of twenty and that’s basically how a person usually feels. It can take up to two full days after the seizure to fully recover and it sucks. Not to mention the large chunks of your memory that are completely blank and you have no idea what happened.  
> Anyway, I’m sorry for the long author note. I just thought that I would give you more info about the brain scans and the typical feelings that arise after having a seizure.


End file.
